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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Adria to open Verona base

Adria to launch first base in Italy in 2014

Adria Airways is continuing to spread its wings outside of Slovenia and will open a base at Verona Villafranca Airport in Italy next summer season. The Slovenian carrier will initially feed the bases of airlines owned by the Lufthansa Group with flights to Vienna (Austrian), Zurich (Swiss International Air Lines) and Brussels (Brussels Airlines). The airline has been awarded rights to operate routes from Verona which have been previously dropped by Italian airline Air Dolomiti, which is owned by Lufthansa. Adria operated flights to Verona from Pristina last year, though they were later discontinued.

Adria Airways is the only EX-YU airline to have bases outside of its home country. The Slovenian carrier has a Bombardier CRJ900 based in Pristina, operating flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Ljubljana itself. In addition, the airline has announced it will inaugurate direct services from Tirana to Frankfurt from April 2, 2014. The flights will operate four times per week. Next summer, Adria will be expanding its network from its home base in Ljubljana by introducing flights to Prague and Warsaw.

In a recent interview, Adria’s CEO Mark Anžur said that next summer marks the beginning of Adria’s new business strategy. While the airline will introduce new destinations, at the same time it will slash frequencies. “We must reduce our frequencies on flights. Our strategy is to operate larger aircraft and fewer frequencies. This way we can offer cheaper prices”, Mr. Anžur said. The airline is also planning to adopt a hybrid low cost - full fare business model, similar to the one used by Air Baltic. “It is essential that in the long run we change our business model and focus on getting passengers from point to point”, the CEO concluded. Adria has recently seen its passenger numbers improve and losses reduce.

35 comments:

So if Lufthansa's Air Dolomiti did not manage to make Verona work, what makes them think Adria can? Or is it one of those moves where Lufthansa does not care if they make money, as long as they get customers?

He he I agree with you.Air Dolomiti is loosing on these routes.So why not Adria? Adria don't care if loosing money .. as long as they are flying and have higher load ...Money revenue from flying (primary airline business) it's still not a big issue for Adria as lonf as it's public, subventioned, helped and mixing card under the table.Just a delayed dead.

Anyway FRA and MUC out of Verona are still under Air Dolomiti wings and appetible Moscow (if still around) too.

Just goes to show how much Adria is Lufthansa's bitch. LH doesn't want to loose money but still likes the passengers it got from Verona so they send in Adria to pick up the pieces and loose money instead. In 2010 LH was considering launching flights to PRN but realized it wouldn't be overly profitable so in 2011 they send Adria to fly from PRN to Munich and Frankfurt. They will do the same with TIA now as well and have sent JP to fly between TIA and FRA. Ridiculous.

Yes but the thing is that Belle Air has a decent cost structure which enables it to profitably operate out of both PRN and TIA.Furthermore, they are a lowcost, Adria is still trying to figure out what it wants to be.

The time will show if all this new bases are reantable. Some of them probably not. But with a base in Slovenia, Italy, Albania, Kosovo/Serbia, Bulgaria - there is no doubt that we got the new regional leader here. Even with 10 Million passangers from BEG, JU can only regard itself as a marginal one-city airliner in the middle of the european open sky.

Ah friend, I fear you are missing the point. Lufthansa owns Swiss, SN Brussels and Austrian Airlines. All airlines it considers of vital interest for its future plans. What does Lufthansa do with Croatia Airlines and Adria? It forces them operate unprofitable routes to its bases while losses would be covered by their respective governments. In other words, Lufthansa has so much respect for these two carriers that it can't be even bothered to purchase them and save them from their doom. What they are doing in stead is that they are using them until they die when they will simply move away to find a new victim or replace them with Germanwings. So what kind of leader are you talking about? What kind of grand scheme are you referring to?

Air Serbia's strategy is the right one. Funnelling all of its passengers via its hub at Belgrade airport. I do not see why you are condemning it to fail, after all, that's what airlines such as Iberia, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot and KLM have been doing for decades now.

The strategy of regional expansionism is not profitable. Adria is the living proof of it. So stop with your bashing of Serbia because you are only embarrassing yourself.

^^ lets be honest, this what adria is trying is some serious expansion. even if they fail (god know for what reason), they will still be the only ones who have got the point - that the regional approach is a only chance for an airliner to make some serious business in the balkanized southeast europe. taken taxpayers money for launching the full flights from pristina or tirana, sounds to me like better thing to do then taking the taxpayers money to promote tsar dushan and opperate empty flights from Thessaloniki and Larnaca.

You can put sour comments as long as you like it. That will not change the fact, that we are watching adria totally changing the business patterns, and becoming the regional leader.

Since this was a swipe at Air Serbia, you probably didn’t notice Jat had a 96% load factor to Thessaloniki in September. Just saying :) but sure you know best. Also love how no one has a problem with Croatia Airlines’s checker board but everyone has a problem with a double headed eagle.

??? Oh pleas, stop with that demagogy. People want to fly directly from Skoplje, Sofija, Varna or Tirana at least to Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna. There was this like once-in-a-century buisiness gap in the ex-yu region: an opportunity for someone to jump and overwhelm the expensive national modell od airliners that brings no profit in states with 2,4 or 6 million inhabitants. Adria took that chance. Someone was mantioning that it was the idea of Lufthansa-Austrian group. Very possible - those guys working in Frankfurt or Vienna seem to have more insight and feeling for the market of South Europe, than those sitting in Abu Dhabi, mostly with hardly any European expirience and background.

What we are basically whitnissing is the crash of big players in our region: Lufthansa and Austrian strategists on the one side and Etihad´s stragegists in Air Serbia. So far, the Lufthansa tem has showed more competence, and if they continue with expanding Adria´s bases, we will have the new airliner of the region.

well, adria didn´t have a single flight from verona or varna and skoplje neither.

And about your second statement, below: its exactly the kind of thinking, for what foreigners think/know that we don´t have any business culture at all. Etihad is a middle eastern giant, that made his success on the base of expirience that air gulf, quattar airlines and emirates had for decades at the very same market - with some big failings and many experiments. an business advandtage of late runners that etihad is not having in belgrade and with JU. perhaps we could talk about some expirience of JU, JP and OU, but etihad is rather ignoring it than trying to learn anything.

"Since this was a swipe at Air Serbia, you probably didn’t notice Jat had a 96% load factor to Thessaloniki in September. Just saying :) but sure you know best. Also love how no one has a problem with Croatia Airlines’s checker board but everyone has a problem with a double headed eagle."

Well the Croatia Airlines with its tail (old and renewed one), is a child of late 1980s and early 1990s, when airliners, having no open sky in euorope, used to be a kind of national public service in the same way as health syste, postal offices and railway infrastructure. So what was propper for an airliner of a new born state that wanted to spread out its nationalistic massage all over the world in 1990, must not be propper for an airliner that tries to gain some profitn in the year 2013.

And regarding the Thessaloniki: I´m totally aware that there are tourists flying to Thessaloniki in July, August, September. But is there anyone from Etihad actually understanding the causes of such a load factor? Or do they perhaps believe that Thessaloniki is like Abu Dabi having the 12 months season, or perhaps that there are some buisenessmen flying there?

Etihad managed to thrive despite being sandwiched between Emirates and Qatar. I am sure that they will do just fine with Air Serbia, especially since there are no serious competitors in its proximity.The closest to the east is Turkish Airlines while to the west its Lufthansa. All the rest in between is a joke and Etihad knows this.

I fail to see why is everyone attacking their decision to establish a strong presence in Thessaloniki. Besides being a popular tourist destination it is also the second largest city in Greece. Thessaloniki has very bad connections with central and northern Europe, that's where Air Serbia will get most of its customers from. I understand you jealous souls choosing a more random destination like Varna or even Cairo but Thessaloniki?! Omg.

Well let's hope for the best. In fact these routes are for feeding Star alliance (Lufthansa group) hubs, but in this situation this is it what Adria can get as member of Star alliance. If gov will get someone to buy it it will feed its hub. Adria is just regional airline with wery small base of potential travellers on scheduled routes out from Slovenia. In this situation there is just no other way for it than to expand on other markets too, And Pristina, Tirana and now Verona is what it can get. Let's hope for the best.

Mentioned in the interview w/ CEO Mark Anzur on Austrian Aviation Net.Also mentioned that they plan to get rid of 2 more CR2 by 2015 and try to acquire 2 or 3 more CR9. Moreover, CR2 will be used only to start new routes, according to Anzur they are only good for that.

That makes no sense. How can a gas-guzzling CRJ be good for opening new routes where you have to considerably lower your fares in order to attract new customers? The only market which makes sense to operate the CRJ on is on those which are considered as high-yielding. Maybe Brussels or Frankfurt.

Adria realised that LJU is not going to be privileged hub as soon as LJU is going to be sold. As JU and LJU have almost the same owner this hand2hand cooperation will end That is why Adria is now acting more cpmpetitive and seeks for new markets

JP needs to try something different, since what it is doing now is not setting the world on fire. They shouldnt be critised for trying. You should only critise decisions which are repeated & failed ones rather ones which are different to existing ones.

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